Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1,4-6,13-15,18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chu et al (US 20230164853 A1) hereinafter as Chu (Priority to Pat. No. 10959229) in view of Park et al (US 20180092127 A1) hereinafter as Park, further in view of Sun et al (US 20230361911 A1) hereinafter as Sun.
Regarding claim(s) 1,15,20, Chu discloses a wireless communication method (See Fig(s). 1), comprising:
transmitting, by an access point (AP) (See Fig(s). 1, AP 114), a multi-user ready-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame to a plurality of stations (STAs) (See ¶ abstract, 11, a method for communicating in a wireless local area network (WLAN) includes: generating, at an access point (AP), a multi-user request to send (MU-RTS) frame for protecting a channel bandwidth during a communication exchange with a plurality of client stations),
wherein the MU-RTS trigger frame indicates whether a clear-to-send (CTS) frame response is to be transmitted by each of the plurality of STAs on a primary 20 MHz channel (P20), a primary 40 MHz channel (P40), a primary 80 MHz channel (P80), a primary 160 MHz channel (P160), or a 320 MHz channel (See ¶ 11, generating, at the client station, a CTS frame that is responsive to the MU-RTS frame; transmitting, by the client station, the CTS frame to the AP in response to the MU-RTS frame via one of the communication subchannels simultaneously with transmission of one or more other CTS frames by one or more other client stations within the channel bandwidth… See Fig(s). 2, See ¶ 60 The PPDU 200 occupies a 20 MHz bandwidth or another suitable bandwidth).
Chu fails to disclose at least one 20 MHz channel is punctured in the P80, the P160, or the 320 MHz channel; wherein each user information field of the MU-RTS trigger frame comprises a subfield and an RU allocation subfield, and the subfield and the RU allocation subfield of each user information field in the MU-RTS trigger frame indicate RU allocation information; wherein the subfield of each user information field in the MU-RTS trigger frame comprises a lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield
Park discloses at least one 20 MHz channel is punctured in the P80, the P160, or the 320 MHz channel (See Fig(s). 10, 118-119, set to third state for preamble puncturing in 160 MHz or 80+80 MHz, where in the primary 80 MHz of the preamble only the secondary 20 MHz is punctured);
Park further discloses wherein each user information field of the MU-RTS trigger frame comprises a subfield and an RU allocation subfield, and the subfield and the RU allocation subfield of each user information field in the MU-RTS trigger frame indicate RU allocation information, (See ¶ Table 5, 10,63, the MURTS frame includes subfield see Table 3, See ¶ 59, and RU allocation subfield See ¶ 63);
wherein the subfield of each user information field in the MU-RTS trigger frame comprises a lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield (See ¶ 75-80, he RU Allocation subfield in the User Info field addressed to the STA indicates either the primary 20 MHz channel, primary 40 MHz channel, primary 80 MHz channel, 160 MHz channel).
Larger bandwidth channel and puncturing improve spectral efficiency and enable wider channel usage even in the presence of interference.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Park within Chu, to improve spectral efficiency and enable wider channel usage even in the presence of interference.
Both Chu and Park fail to disclose wherein the lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield is a 1-bit field indicating whether the CTS response frame is to be transmitted on only a lower 160 MHz portion of the 320 MHz channel, or on both the lower 160 MHz portion and an upper 160 MHz portion of the 320 MHz channel.
Sun discloses wherein the lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield is a 1-bit field indicating whether the CTS response frame is to be transmitted on only a lower 160 MHz portion of the 320 MHz channel, or on both the lower 160 MHz portion and an upper 160 MHz portion of the 320 MHz channel (See ¶ 98-99, See Fig(s). 8B, The AP receives the RTS frame and may interpret one or more bits of the service field to carry punctured channel information. …. For example, the CTS frame may indicate that only the lower 160 MHz sub-band can be used for subsequent communications over the wireless channel. The STA receives the CTS frame and, at time t.sub.2, proceeds to transmit a data PPDU to the AP over the lower 160 MHz sub-band of the 320 MHz channel.).
The punctured and/or nonpunctured subchannels provide appropriate information for which of the given subchannels within the 320Mhz a station can effectively communicate with the AP.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Sun within Chu, so as to enhance overall network performance for communications between devices and APs within a given sub-band without interruption.
Regarding claim(s) 4,14, Sun discloses wherein the lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield is set to a first value to indicate the P20, the P40, the P80, or the P160; while the lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield is set to a second value (such as 1) to indicate the 320 MHz channel (See ¶ 67-68). Reasons for combining same as claim 1.
Regarding claim(s) 5,19, Park discloses The wireless communication method of claim 2, wherein BO of the RU allocation subfield is set to 1 and B7-B1 of the RU allocation subfield are set to 69 to indicate the 320 MHz channel (Table 3). Reasons for combining same as claim 1.
Regarding claim(s) 6,18, Park discloses wherein when a HE/EHT format subfield of the user information field is set to a second value (such as 1), the RU allocation subfield, together with the lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield, further indicates whether the CTS frame response is to be sent by the STA indicated by an AID12 subfield on the P80, P160 or 320 MHz channel in which at least one 20 MHz channel is punctured (See ¶ Table 5-6, 54,63, Subfields Bits Description AID 12 indicates the AID of the STA allocated the resource unit (RU) to transmit the MPDU(s) in the HE TB PPDU, except for an AID equal to 0 which identifies a wildcard RU for random access. RU allocation 8 indicates the RU used by the HE TB PPDU of the STA identified by the User) . Reasons for combining same as claim 1.
Regarding claim(s) 13, Chu discloses wherein the MU-RTS trigger frame comprises a HE/EHT format subfield of a user information field to indicate a HE/EHT subfield (See ¶ 64).
Claim(s) 11-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chu et al (US 20230164853 A1) hereinafter as Chu (Priority to Pat. No. 10959229) in view of Park et al (US 20180092127 A1) hereinafter as Park, further in view of Sun et al (US 20230361911 A1) hereinafter as Sun further in view of Seok et al (US 20200288439 A1) hereinafter as Seok.
Regarding claim(s) 11, Seok discloses wherein in the user information field addressed to STA2, the lower/upper 160 MHz segment subfield is set to 0, and BO and B7-B1 of the RU allocation subfield are set to 0 and 67, respectively (See ¶ 103-105, B7-B1 of the RU Allocation subfield is set to 67 to indicate the negotiated secondary channel of 80 MHz bandwidth if the negotiated secondary channel is 80 MHz segment of 80+80/160 MHz. [0105] When B7-B1 is set to 61-64 for an HE SST STA that is a 20 MHz operation STA, B0 can be set to either 0 (the primary 80 MHz channel) or 1 (the secondary 80 MHz channel); however, when B7-B1 is set to 67 for an HE SST STA that is a 80 MHz operation STA, B0 is set to 1 (the secondary 80 MHz channel).
Negotiated secondary channel allows for increased bandwidth with reduced interference.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Seok within Chu, to allow for increased bandwidth with reduced interference.
Regarding claim(s) 12, Seok discloses, wherein an EHT Operation element received by STA2 indicates that the third lowest frequency 20 MHz channel in the P80 is punctured; and the method further comprises: receiving, by the access point (AP), a CTS frame response from STA2 in a non-HT duplicate PPDU on a 484+242 tone MRU comprising the P20 and S40 (See ¶ 21, 120, an MU-RTS Trigger frame of the MU-RTS Trigger/CTS frame exchange includes a Disallowed Subchannel Bitmap in a User Info field indicating disallowed 20 MHz subchannels and disallowed 242-tone RUs.). Reasons for combining same as claim 11.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 7-10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Raj Jain whose telephone number is (571) 272-3145. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th ~8 ~6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RAJ JAIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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